Is AI a canary in the coal mine and should we really fear AI taking jobs in Europe?

There are already fewer younger workers aged between 22 and 25 being hired in AI-vulnerable jobs, such as software engineering, customer service, and marketing in the United States, according to a study. 

Young people are more likely to see employment growth in fields less exposed to risk, such as nursing, industrial labour, or retail,  found the Stanford University study, titled ‘Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence.’

The study “provide(s) early, large-scale evidence consistent with the hypothesis that the AI revolution is beginning to have a significant and disproportionate impact on entry-level workers in the American labour market,” it reads.

Labour market experts told Euronews Next it’s too early to see a similar trend happening in Europe and that there is still a shortage in vocational jobs, such as construction and manufacturing, that predates AI by about a decade.

So what impact is AI already having on Europe’s labour market?

Companies looking for ‘focused experts’ as AI evolves

Adam Tsakalidis, a skills intelligence and foresight expert with the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), collects online vacancies available in the European Union to find the digital skills that are sought after. 

Tsakalidis said in his analysis that AI competencies are coming up in domains that would be expected, such as AI engineering or developer roles, but also for jobs at risk of automation, such as authors, writers, and translators.

He said companies are looking for niche specialists within these high-skilled jobs that can bring something that AI cannot, which is skilled expertise.

“Cognitive skills, the ability to process social context, these remain human advantages,” Tsakalidis said, noting that this is likely to continue even as the large language models (LLMs) that enable AIs become more “sophisticated.”

Tsakalidis said that CEDEFOP’s 2035 forecasting still shows that there will be an increased demand for digital roles despite the rise of AI.

 Employers are also looking for a mix of human skills, like problem-solving, teamwork and communication, alongside traditional AI competencies,  said Konstantinos Pouliakas, skills and labour market expert with CEDEFOP.

 The key question is, how will workers at all skill levels be asked to use AI and adapt to how it will change their positions, he said. 

History has shown that those in high-skill positions are also more likely to adapt successfully to technological changes, boosting their productivity and income, according to Ulrich Zierahn-Weilage, associate professor of economics at Utrecht University.

“That is why I would refrain from saying ‘become a farmer,’ there aren’t too many jobs there,” Zierahn-Weilage said. “It’s too broad of a statement because … you still need the human that has critical thinking, while the machine helps you get the dirty work done more quickly.”

​Yet, Tsakalidis and Pouliakas said there’s still a risk that some professions become completely automated between now and then, but which ones are hard to predict.

4 in 10 Europeans need AI training, report shows

CEDEFOP’s 2024 AI skills survey found that 4 in 10 EU workers say they need to develop AI-related skills, yet only 15 per cent have taken AI-focused training.

Pouliakas said it’s not clear from their report which AI skills workers are lacking, nor which ones are the most in-demand from employers.

A study of thousands of people from seven countries by German engineering company Bosch found that effective use of AI tools is the most important skill that workers are expected to have, followed by critical thinking and cybersecurity analysis.

To meet the skills gap challenge, Anastasia Pouliou, CEDEFOP’s specialist on qualifications and vocational training, said there’s a need for more flexible courses for workers that are industry-specific.

“In healthcare, for instance, you might have formal qualifications but [learn how to] use AI tools for workflow automations,” she said.

The EU’s new AI Act includes measures to boost AI literacy across the workforce, but implementation will take time, Pouliou added.

These efforts also aren’t uniform across the EU, with some countries moving faster than others, she added.

For example, Pouliou pointed to Spain’s launch of a national AI agency and Poland’s partnership with Google for vocational AI training for professionals in cybersecurity and energy as examples where these countries are leaping ahead.

For individuals who are worried about how AI could change their jobs, Pouliou says the key is to learn how it works. 

“Never stop learning,” she said. “With AI, you definitely need to be aware and be informed but keep on being trained”.